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a hard drive. I'm looking to switch to maybe debian testing.
My question is will the installer let me install without reformatting the drive?
I can move everything to a temporary folder which the installer will not see, nor
write over. Plus, I can remove everything from my efi system partition.
Can debian do it? If not, than how about another distribution?
By the way, I think 'testing' (also known as Buster) should be releasing this weekend? So that is great timing.
Hence, my dilemma. I've got plenty of time
to think about this.
Below is a partial dump from fdisk.
Ubuntu chose the layout. I didn't.
Spoiler, click me
Disk: 1.8 TiB
Disklabel type: gpt
Device Size Type
/dev/sda1 512M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1.8T Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 8G Linux swap
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
It's been a while for me with Debian, but most installers will let you dual-boot. You could then move your /home or anything you want to the new installation, then remove the Ubuntu partitions to reclaim space. Its not ideal, but it could work if you don't have a way to back up your data.
Good luck!